Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to computing device management and more particularly to automated computing device configuration in a network environment.
Description of the Related Art
Pre-requisite to the utilization of a computing device in a network environment is the configuration of the computing device. The configuration of the computing device can range from assigning core network communications parameters to the computing device such as a private Internet protocol (IP) address, to more complex parameters such as system names. Conventionally, the dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP) automatically assigns IP addressing data to connecting devices in a network. However, in the case of DHCP, the assignment of IP addressing data occurs on a first come first served basis and in random form based upon a seed starting value. As such, with respect to the presence of a multiplicity of computing devices in a data center, the assigned IP address to a given computing device provides little information regarding the computing device itself.
Tools do exist that perform bulk configuration of computing devices in a computing cluster. For example, tools such as the “Extreme Cloud Administration Toolkit” also referred to as “xCAT” in addition to many other functions, facilitate the automated configuration of different computing devices in a cluster. Most typically, the cluster is physically arranged in the form of different racks of server blades with the racks being positioned relative to one another in one or more rows. As such, administering each server blade in the cluster can be a daunting task just in terms of locating a desired one of the server blades. Advanced solutions provide for the global positioning system (GPS) assisted location of a server blade of interest so as to provide a precise location in the data center of the blade server to a requesting individual. But even in the most technically sophisticated solution, the configuration data of the different server blades provides no clue as to the location of the server blades within the cluster.